Victor Hanson Davis (one of my favorite historians..read his Carnage and Culture. Now!, read it now!) has some interesting things to say on Europe and the United States in the aftermath of Operation Iraqi Freedom. There is a realignment in world politics that has been a long time in the making..probably since the mid 1980s or so. Ever since the Soviet Union revealed itself for the paper dragon that it had become by then. Once that happened, realignments were bound to occur, it was just a matter of when and why. Interesting times.